Right Angle began as a column in the now-defunct Sunday magazine in November 1991. The column allowed me the luxury of presenting an alternative to the prevailing left-liberal consensus in India. It has become the implicit signature tune for all my subsequent writings.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

A limited-overs match is on, grudge series will be next

By Swapan Dasgupta

For an Indian cricket fan in the early-1960s, defeat
was a reality we learnt to live with. An Indian side touring England and
Australia acquired rich experiences of getting thrashed comprehensively. At
Headingley in the summer of 1952, the scoreboard read 0/4 in India’s second
innings; and in the Oval Test that year, India was struggling at 5/6 before
rain came to the rescue.

India’s solace lay in individual performances.
Legends were woven around Vinoo Mankad’s spectacular all-round performance at
Lord’s in 1952 and, of course, Oxford Freshman Abbas Ali Baig’s century on
debut at Old Trafford in 1959. Inevitably, the search for individual valour
often meant creating myths out of very little. In Calcutta, there was a halo
around wicket-keeper P.Sen who stumped Don Bradman in a match against South
Australia. There is also a vague recollection of a bileth-pherat (England-returned) Bengali gentleman reminiscing
about the time Dattu Phadkar bowled four consecutive maiden overs to the
legendary Len Hutton.

It may sound flippant, but the liberal discourse on
the Assembly election in Gujarat has often resembled the conversations on
Indian cricket some 50 years ago. The outcome of the Test was pre-determined
and the points of interest were individual performances and the margin of
defeat. If India averted an innings defeat, it was regarded as a jolly good
show.

The similarities with the recent narratives on the
Gujarat polls are striking. The re-election of Narendra Modi is often taken as
given and the real interest is centred on his margin of victory. If the BJP, it
is said, secures even a single seat less than its 2007 tally of 117 seats in an
Assembly of 182, it will be a ‘moral defeat’ for Modi. Conversely, any improvement
over the 2007 performance will be regarded as a categorical mandate and a green
signal for his entry into the national arena.

The benchmark set by those who are reconciled to
Modi’s third consecutive victory may well be arbitrary and, indeed, whimsical
but it does address a larger point: politics is not merely about statistics but
is largely centred on perceptions. The definition of an emphatic victory will
be subjective.

It is to the credit of the Gujarat Chief Minister
that he has assiduously managed to convey the image of representing the
Gujarati consensus—as captured by his ‘Ekmat Gujarat’ slogan—which can, at
best, be dented on the margins. He has also managed to shift the terms of
engagement quite dramatically: the debate in Gujarat on Modi’s 11 years in
office bears little resemblance to the so-called ‘communal’ concerns
articulated by his detractors in the rest of India. In Gujarat, the opposition has
challenged Modi on purely local concerns such as water and the perceived
affront to Leuva Patels; in the rest of India the misgivings are over Modi’s,
apparently contentious, “idea of India”.

Indeed, the idea of Gujarati uniqueness has become
so pronounced that, for the first time in living memory, the Congress mounted a
campaign that carried no mention of any member of the Nehru-Gandhi. It
preferred going into battle with an evocative media blitz that had a brand
ambassador as its mascot.

If the Congress fails to dent Modi’s existing
majority, it is almost certain that this ‘non-political’ campaign will be held
responsible. More troubling for it, however, is if the campaign succeeds. Will
the Congress then acknowledge that the first family carries no political value
addition?

On December 20, some of these questions will be addressed,
but only perfunctorily. In the imagination of India, the Gujarat election was
only about Gujarat and, by association, Modi. The outcome could well help the
BJP select its leading face for the general election. But its national
implication should not be exaggerated. Despite
the hype, Gujarat 2012 was a limited encounter: one side was battling for
victory and the other was praying for a draw. A national election with Modi on
the centre-stage will be a grudge series.

The way we play
cricket reflects the national character. Yesterday’s India was frightened and unprepared
to confront adversaries; today’s India will relish a no-holds-barred scrap. It
is best to look upon the Gujarat poll as a tame Ranji Trophy match. Sunday Times of India, December 16, 2012

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About Me

The Right is an endangered community in India's English-language media. I happen to be one of the few to have retained a precarious toehold in the mainstream media. I intend this blog as a sounding board of ideas and concerns.
You can read the details of my education, professional experience and political inclinations on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swapan_Dasgupta).
RIGHT ANGLE is an archive of my published articles. USUAL SUSPECTS is my blog.